British Women's Institute Will Be Serving Tea & Cake At Glastonbury

26 May 2015 | 1:38 pm | Staff Writer

"We won't run out ... we're the WI"

The Somerset chapter of the Women's Institute in Britain has announced that its members will be making their maiden appearance at this year's Glastonbury Festival to provide dainty refreshments to drunken mud-caked revellers next month.

As the BBC reports, the ladies of Somerset WI expect to dish out somewhere in the vicinity of 1000 serves of tea and cake each day of the festival, during which they'll be operating in the Green Fields zone from 10am until 7pm each day of the event.

"We might do more, we just don't know," Puriton & District member Katie Newell told the BBC, "but we won't run out of tea and cake  we're the WI."

The WI is making its debut at the event, this year headlined by the eclectic likes of The Who, Foo Fighters, Kanye West and Florence & The Machine, to demonstrate the ongoing contemporary nature of the organisation by engaging with the wide cross-section of citizens roaming around Glasto.

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"We felt we really needed to do something that proves that the WI is going forward into the next century as well as celebrating having lasted this last century," Newell said. "We want to show everybody the amazing work the WI does and Glastonbury Festival seemed like a really good way for us to be represented."

To that end, members around the country have started preparing "phenomenal" numbers of goods to freeze ahead of the festival, including "sponge cakes, lemon drizzle cakes, chocolate cakes and fruit cakes".

"We don't know how many we'll sell but who doesn't need a cup of tea and a slice of cake at some point after a big party?" Newell said. "It's the best way to chill out after you've been dancing."

Glastonbury Festival runs from 24-28 June this year. See the event's website for more information.